A Jupiter galilean Moons close alignment?

[Annamely]

Hi all,

Maybe a silly question and I was not sure in which section to post it but...

Would you know if there is such a thing as all 4 moons of Jupiter aligned? Like, I know we can have 3 shadows at once on the Jupe, only 3 moons' transits showing at once at maximum, but is there a possibility when these 3 would be showing for example, and Callisto the 4th moon (which I know cannot cast any shadow on the Jupe) be near enough to be picked up by a webcam at 2X barlow in the same field of view? I had a few good looks at the Sky & Telescope Jupiter's Moon interactive tool (very good, BTW) but I cannot 'plan' such an event, if it possible at all?

Thanks in advance for any feedback!

[lukebl]

You're not quite correct there. Callisto does have shadow transits although, being further out than the others, they are less frequent. Also, something to do with the dynamics of the orbits, although a triple shadow transit is possible (which always includes Callisto), a quadruple one can't happen.

There's a neat little Java program here, which you can play around with and predict the next satellite events.

The next triple shadow events are on 12th October 2013, 3rd June 2014 and 24th January 2015, after which there won't be any till 2032. I can't take credit for that information myself. It's from a superb website by Ricci (a member of this forum): http://www.pierpaolo...e3ombre_eng.htm .

[Annamely]

_{Thank you Luke! Sorry for my mistakes tho! It's a learning curve isn't it... Hehe Thanks again}